To Mammogram - or not? That is the question

The latest research raises serious questions about the efficacy of subjecting women to mammograms after age 60. Here is the article from The New York Times: Second Opinion Quandary With Mammograms: Get a Screening, or Just Skip It? By DENISE GRADY Published: November 2, 2009 Here we go again. Another study raises questions about the benefits of mammograms, and another set of confusing statements issue forth from experts. Last month, Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, told The New York Times that the medical profession had exaggerated the benefits of cancer screening, and that if a woman refused mammography, “I would not think badly of her, but I would like her to get it.” Then, the cancer society issued a statement saying women over 40 should keep having mammograms every year, because seven studies have shown that the test decreases the risk of death from breast cancer. But the statement also said mammography can “miss cancers that need treatment, and in some cases finds disease that does not need treatment.” In other words, the test may lead to some women being treated, and being exposed to serious side effects, for cancers that would not have killed them. Some researchers estimate that as many as one-third of cancers picked up by screening would not be fatal even if left untreated. But right now, nobody knows which ones. So what are women supposed to do? Mammograms are no fun, to put it mildly. Like many women, I have been putting up with them in hopes that, if I get cancer, they might find it early enough to save my life and maybe help me avoid extensive surgery and chemotherapy. Have I been kidding myself? Hoping to make sense of it all, I consulted several experts. All said mammograms were still important — after all, breast cancer kills 40,000 women a year in this country — but they differed about who really needed them and how often. All agreed that research was badly needed to figure out how to tell dangerous tumors from the so-called indolent ones. One of the experts was Dr. Laura J. Esserman, a breast surgeon from the University of California, San Francisco, and author of the Oct. 21 report in The Journal of the American Medical Association that touched off the latest debate about mammography. Dr. Esserman described breast cancers as slow, medium or fast in growth rate and aggressiveness, and said screening seemed to be good at finding the slow ones, which probably didn’t need treatment, but might not catch the aggressive and deadly types before they began to spread. But it also picks up the medium ones, and those are the women who may benefit most. Again, more research is needed to figure out which kind of tumor a patient has. “The first thing to talk about is who’s helped and who’s not,” Dr. Esserman said. In her view, women over 70 or 75 can stop being screened, because no studies have shown that it helps them. If they do develop breast cancer, she said, it is likely to be a slow-growing type that will not kill them. Like many other researchers, she said that, despite the cancer society’s guidelines, evidence was also lacking for a benefit in screening women from 40 to 50 — unless they have a strong family history of breast cancer or a mutation in a gene called BRCA, which greatly increases the risk. For women 50 to 70, Dr. Esserman said, the story is different. In that age range, there is good evidence that screening can reduce the risk of death from breast cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent. Also, she said, women should try to get a sense of their own risk, and if it is high, talk to a doctor about taking tamoxifen or raloxifene, drugs that can lower the risk. One risk factor is having dense breast tissue, which is a double threat: cancer is more likely and harder to detect, because X-rays do not penetrate this tissue as well as they pass through fat. The only way to find out whether you have dense breasts is with a mammogram, and the radiologist’s report should mention density, Dr. Esserman said. Patients may have to request the full report. Other risk factors include taking hormones to treat menopause symptoms; having a history of biopsies, no pregnancies before 30, or a mother or sister with breast cancer; and aging. A risk calculator for breast cancer, used by the National Cancer Institute, provides a score based on the answers to seven quick questions. But it’s only an estimate, and Dr. Susan Love, a breast surgeon and researcher in Santa Monica, Calif., cautions that the calculator is not so good at predicting individual risk. As for screening, Dr. Love praised Dr. Brawley and Dr. Esserman for questioning the status quo. “Boy, everybody was afraid to go there, like it was the third rail,” she said, adding: “I really don’t think we should be routinely screening women under 50. There’s no data showing it works.” Younger women, she said, are less likely to have cancer, and they tend to have dense breast tissue, so mammograms are more likely to miss tumors. For them, she said, “it’s radiation without much benefit.” Dr. Love noted that not all medical groups agreed with the cancer society’s guidelines. Some recommend no screening for women under 50 or over 70, and some advise mammograms only every other year. In European countries that screen every other year, she said, the breast cancer death rates are no higher than in the United States. She added that women from ages 50 to 70 should find out whether they have dense breasts, and those who do not could probably get by with less frequent mammograms. But some researchers say that the benefits of yearly screening far outweigh the risks, and that if women skip it, gains against breast cancer — death rates have declined in recent years — could be undone. Dr. Larry Norton, deputy physician in chief for breast cancer programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, said by e-mail: “Just because a test isn’t perfect is no reason to abandon it while better tests are being developed. The bottom line is that if an individual woman wants to reduce her odds of dying of breast cancer (by at least 24 percent, which is no small effect), then she should follow the current screening guidelines.” Even if it were true that 1 in 3 cancers found by mammography would not become fatal (a figure that Dr. Norton questions), there is no sure way to tell which those are. “And in the face of uncertainty, one must make rational choices,” he said. “Say someone fires a gun at you, and you know that there is a 30 percent chance that the bullet is a blank. Do you not still duck?” Dr. Norton also emphasizes that finding tumors when small, which mammograms can do, increases the odds that the patient will be able to avoid mastectomy and chemotherapy. But Dr. Silvia C. Formenti, the chairwoman of radiation oncology at New York University Langone Medical Center, said: “I don’t think there is enough debate. Screening does not pay off the way we expected.” Dr. Formenti said she was concerned about finding tumors in older people that would probably not kill them. But the diagnosis turns them into cancer patients and erodes their peace of mind forever. “We take away the innocence of being healthy and not having to worry about cancer,” she said. “The psychological cost of becoming a cancer patient is underrated.” Dr. Formenti said the emphasis on screening by groups like the cancer society might have misled the public into thinking that screening could prevent cancer. “It’s a giant misconception,” she said. Nonetheless, she said, “between 50 and 60 is a good time to be screened” — and women over 60 may still benefit, though the evidence is not as strong. But she emphasized that women of all ages needed to assess their risks when making decisions about being screened, and that all should have their breasts examined once a year by a doctor to check for lumps or other abnormalities. An experienced doctor can feel lumps one centimeter and larger, she said, noting that even masses as large as five centimeters can still be removed by lumpectomy — preserving the breast — and may not need chemotherapy. “In a certain sense, I have to confess that I’m happy if the public gets offended or infuriated” by the debate, Dr. Formenti said. “I want taxpayers to say: ‘You have no clarity. Study it. Stop telling us you are a good girl if you get a mammogram.’ ” By the time I finished the interviews I decided that, because I’m between 50 and 60, I’ll keep having mammograms. But I’ve requested the report from my last one to find out about my tissue density, and if it’s low, I might stretch the interval to 18 months or even 2 years. And I’ll hope that in the meantime research does find a way to tell which tumors will kill you, and which will just sit there and mind their own business until you die of something else. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: November 4, 2009 The Second Opinion column on Tuesday, about new findings that raise questions about mammography, omitted part of the affiliation of Dr. Otis Brawley, who said the medical profession had overstated the benefits of cancer screening. He is chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society — not just “the society.”

Chess Training - 2

I asked and Brian answered - LM Brian Wall, whom I first met online many moons ago! Brian seems to be all over the place - he's at Facebook, he's at My Space, he's a chess coach, an author of books teaching people (like me) how to play chess (I did order Learn How to Play Chess Like an Animal cuz I loved the name so much) a dad, a chum, just an all around good guy. We are now engaged in two online chess games so he can assess my skills (ahem). They will be finished in due course. In the meantime, my two games at redhotpawn are going apace. I'm playing with Shira -- that games look to devolve into a shoot-out at the O-K Corral (a/k/a the middle of the board) which WILL commence after my latest move, whew! Things are tense, folks, tense. My second game is - well, I'm not sure, but I think I may have a checkmate in sight. If this turns out to be true, this would be my very first victory at that playing venue, and the first win in a long long long time playing online. We'll see.

Computer Labs for Kids: Update on SOS Childrens Village

Hola! Prior post on Computer Labs for Kids' latest project. Shira has been busy unpacking and assembling the 28 Dell Latitude 2100 notebooks that she will be distributing to children in need during the SOS Childrens Village of Illinois Project! PROJECT COMMENCES NOVEMBER 15, 2009!!!

Treasure Trove - Scotland!

Updated November 4, 2009 to add this photograph: David Booth: The safari park warden parked his car by field in Stirlingshire and made the find after taking just a few paces. Photo: GETTY. From The Guardian.co.uk November 3, 2009 Iron age gold treasure found in Scotland Metal detector finds 2,000-year-old treasure hoard worth an estimated £1m in field near Stirling A metal-detecting enthusiast has unearthed a 2,000-year-old treasure hoard worth an estimated £1m, it was revealed today. Four gold neckbands dating to the iron age were discovered in a field near Stirling by the amateur hunter. The man, who has not been identified, informed Scotland's Treasure Trove Unit which sent a team to excavate the site, the Daily Record reported. The bands, or "torcs", made from twisted gold, are thought to date from the 1st and 3rd century BC. A similar torc found in Newark, Nottinghamshire, in 2005 sold for £350,000. The Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel will value the latest discovery. A spokesman for the National Museums of Scotland said: "There has been a significant find." Under Scots law, the crown can claim any archaeological objects found in Scotland. Finders have no ownership rights and must report any objects to the treasure trove unit. The man may receive a reward equal to the value of the jewellery. A[n] historian, Fiona Watson, told BBC Radio Scotland: "It belongs to the crown, and the crown – at Her Majesty's discretion – can pay money over to the finder to the market value. I'm sure that is what will happen. "The key question then is what will happen to this remarkable find. Where will it go?"

Another Thracian Tomb with Chariot Discovered

From Novinite.com (Some of the vessels uncovered in the new Thracian tomb by the team of archaeologist Veselin Ignatov near Karanova. Photo by Bulphoto) Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Silver Treasure in Thracian Tomb Archaeology November 3, 2009, Tuesday A team of Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a new tomb of an aristocrat from Ancient Thrace near the southern town of Nova Zagora. The team led by archaeologist Veselin Ignatov found a burial tomb of 12 square meters date back to the end of 1st century and beginning of 2nd century AD. It is located outside of the village of Karanovo. The burial site of the Thracian aristocrat contains a number of interesting items including a silver treasure of vessels and artifacts that were place there to be used by the aristocrat in his afterlife. Those include two silver cups with images of love god Eros, and a number of other ornate silver and bronze vessels. The archaeologists have also found a chariot and fragments of a shield. The expedition called Karanovo 2009-2010 has just started to uncover their new find, and Ignatov expects a lot more valuable items to be discovered. The archaeologists from the Nova Zagora History Museum are going to continue their exploration of the Thracian tomb on the spot even during the coming winter months after a special shelter is built on the site.

Viking Silver Stolen from Archaeological Site

From The Local Island thieves bag Viking treasure Published: 2 Nov 09 17:31 Five hundred Viking era silver artifacts have been plundered from a site of archaeological interest on the Baltic island of Gotland. Two archaeologists employed by Gotland county were dismayed to discover the valuables had vanished when they arrived at a field in Alva in Gotland to follow up on a recent find. "It's just as saddening every time it happens because it's our heritage that disappears," said Majvor Östergren at the Gotland County Administrative Board. The methodical thieves dug some 250 holes in a bid to secure as much booty as possible. Östergren estimated that the impostors had made off with 500 silver pieces worth a combined total of 250,000 to 500,000 kronor ($35,000 to $70,000). Following the raid, the field was placed under police surveillance, enabling archaeologists to continue their excavation work, news website helagotland.se reports. At a press conference on Monday county officials displayed some of the objects overlooked by the thieves, including 100 silver coins, a gold bracteate and a silver crucifix. TT/Paul O'Mahony (news@thelocal.se)

35,000 Year Old "Venus" Figurine

I don't know how I missed - but it seems I did! Better late than never. This is a very important discovery. I found the original article with photo here. Here is the press release from Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubigen: A Venus figurine from the Swabian Jura rewrites prehistory 13 May 2009 Universitaet Tuebingen Under embargo until 13 May 2009 19:00 GMT The 2008 excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany recovered a female figurine carved from mammoth ivory from the basal Aurignacian deposit. This figurine, which is the earliest depiction of a human, and one of the oldest known examples of figurative art worldwide, was made at least 35,000 years ago. This discovery radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art. Between September 5 and 15, 2008 excavators at Hohle Fels near the town of Schelklingen recovered the six fragments of carved ivory that form the Venus. The importance of the discovery became apparent on September 9 when an excavator recovered the main piece of the sculpture that represents the majority of the torso. The figurine lay about 3 meters below the current surface of the cave in an area about 20 meters from the cave’s entrance. The finds come from a single quarter meter and were recovered from within 8 cm in the vertical dimension. The Venus from Hohle Fels is nearly complete with only the left arm and shoulder missing. The excellent preservation and the close stratigraphic association of the pieces of the figurine indicate that the Venus experienced little disturbance after deposition. The figurine originates from a red-brown, clayey silt at the base of about one meter of Aurignacian deposits.The Venus lay in pieces next to a number of limestone blocks with dimension of several decimeters. The find density in the area of the Venus is moderately high with much flint knapping debris, worked bone and ivory, bones of horse, reindeer, cave bear, mammoth, ibex, as well as burnt bone. Radiocarbon dates from this horizon span the entire range from 31,000 – 40,000 years ago. The fact that the venus is overlain by five Aurignacian horizons that contain a dozen stratigraphically intact anthropogenic features with a total thickness of 70 – 120 cm, suggests that figurine is indeed of an age corresponding to the start of the Aurignacian around 40,000 years ago. Although much ivory working debris has been recovered from the basal Aurignacian deposits at Hohle Fels and the nearby site of Geißenklösterle, this sculpture is the first example of figurative art recovered from the basal Aurignacian in Swabia. The discovery of the Venus of Hohle Fels refutes claims that figurative representations and other symbolic artifacts first appear the later phases of the Swabian Aurignacian. The Venus shows a range of entirely unique features as well as a number of characteristics present in later female figurines. The Venus of Hohle Fels lacks a head. Instead an off-centered, but carefully carved ring is located above the broad shoulders of the figurine. This ring, despite being weathered, preserves polish suggesting that the figurine was worn as a pendant. Beneath the shoulders, which are roughly as thick as they are wide, large breasts project forward. The figurine has two short arms with two carefully carved hands with visible fingers resting on the upper part of the stomach below the breasts. The Venus has a short and squat form with a waist that is slightly narrower than the broad shoulders and wide hips. Multiple deeply incised horizontal lines cover the abdomen from the area below the breast to the pubic triangle. Several of these horizontal lines extend to the back of the figurine and are suggestive of clothing or a wrap of some sort. Microscopic images show that these incisions were created by repeatedly cutting along the same lines with sharp stone tools. The legs of the Venus are short and pointy. The buttocks and genitals are depicted in more details. The split between the two halves of the buttocks is deep and continues without interruption to the front of the figurine where the vulva is visible between the open legs. There can be no doubt that the depiction of oversized breast, exentuated buttocks and genetalia result from the deliberate exaggeration of the sexual features of the figurine. In addition to the many carefully depicted anatomical features, the surface of the Venus preserves numerous lines and deliberate markings. Many of the features, including the emphasis on sexual attributes and lack of emphasis on the head, face and arms and legs, call to mind aspects of the numerous Venus figurines well known from the European Gravettien, which typically date between 22 and 27 ka BP. The careful depiction of the hands is reminiscent of those of Venuses including that of archetypal Venus of Willendorf, which was discovered 100 years earlier in summer of 1908. Despite the far greater age of the Venus of Hohle Fels, many of its attributes occur in various forms throughout the rich tradition of Paleolithic female representations. The new figurine from Hohle Fels radically changes our view of origins of Paleolithic art. Prior to this discovery, animals and therianthropic imagry dominated the over two dozen figurines from the Swabian Aurignacian. Female imagry was entirely unknown. With this discovery, the notion that three dimensional female imagry developed in the Gravettian can be rejected. Also the interpretations suggesting that strong, aggressive animals or shamanic depictions dominate the Aurignacian art of Swabia, or even Europe as a whole, need to be reconsidered. Although there is a long history of debate over the meaning of Paleolithic Venuses, their clear sexual attributes suggest that they are a direct or indirect expression of fertility. The Venus of Hohle Fels provides an entirely new view of the art from the early Upper Paleolithic and reinforces the arguments that have been made for innovative cultural manifestations accompanying the rise of the Swabian Aurignacian. While many researchers, including Nicholas Conard, assume that the Aurignacian artworks were made by early modern humans shortly after their migration into Europe, this assumption can neither be confirmed or refuted based on the available skeletal data from the Swabian caves. The Venus of Hohle Fels forms a center piece for a major exhibit in Stuttgart entitled Ice Age Art and Culture, which will run from September 18, 2009 – January 10, 2010. The author of the paper: A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian deposits of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany is Nicholas J. Conard. Full bibliographic information Nature, Vol. 459, Nr. 7244

Major Astronomical Sites Discovered in Utah

Ohio Wesleyan art professor uncovers celestial connection in desert Southwest Sunday, November 1, 2009 3:40 AM By Doug Caruso THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Jim Krehbiel was up past midnight making a piece of art by layering maps and field notes onto photos he had taken of an ancient ritual site high on a cliff ledge in the desert Southwest. He looked at the image of the kiva and remembered how the ruins were nearly inaccessible. Krehbiel had to lower himself on a rope to reach them. Why, he wondered that night in the fall of 2007, would anyone build something so important in such a remote spot among the canyons and mesas? It was then that the chairman of Ohio Wesleyan University's art department found himself at the conjunction of archaeology and astronomy. Perhaps, he thought, the site was an observatory; a place to help religious leaders keep track of the solstices, time rituals and plantings. "Their world around them is absolute, total chaos," Krehbiel said. "They were really at the mercy of the elements. "So where do they go for something that's predictable, that remains the same, that you can count on: The sky and the relationship of those things on the horizon." A discussion with Barbara Andereck, a professor of astronomy and physics at Ohio Wesleyan, put Krehbiel on a path that would help him test his ideas about the remote kivas he visited each summer. Krehbiel was stepping into archeo-astronomy, the study of the ways ancient cultures tracked the sky's movements. The science has been gaining acceptance as a branch of archaeology since the 1970s. England's Stonehenge, for example, is well known for its alignments with astronomical phenomena. In Ohio, archaeologists agree that ancient mound builders lined up some works with the movements of the sun and the moon. In the Southwest, the most famous site is the Chaco Sun Dagger. The sun and moon shine through the spaces between slabs of rock to make slashes of light on a spiral carving in conjunction with the solstices and the movements of the moon. But no one had identified such alignments at hundreds of remote ruins that dot the canyons of southeastern Utah. Rest of article.

Waldseemuller Map Back in the News

From BBC News Magazine Page last updated at 11:40 GMT, Wednesday, 28 October 2009 The map that changed the world [Annotations on the map graphic: 1) First use of America on map, after explorer Amerigo Vespucci. 2) The Pacific not confirmed until six years after map made. 3) Old World shown as the ancients saw it. 4) New eastern sea route to India. 5) The legendary island of Taprobane. 6) Reference to legendary king Prester John.] Drawn half a millennium ago and then swiftly forgotten, one map made us see the world as we know it today... and helped name America. But, as Toby Lester has discovered, the most powerful nation on earth also owes its name to a pun. Almost exactly 500 years ago, in 1507, Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure Germanic scholars based in the mountains of eastern France, made one of the boldest leaps in the history of geographical thought - and indeed in the larger history of ideas. Near the end of an otherwise plodding treatise titled Introduction to Cosmography, they announced to their readers the astonishing news that the world did not just consist of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the three parts of the world known since antiquity. A previously unknown fourth part of the world had recently been discovered, they declared, by the Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci, and in his honour they had decided to give it a name: America. But that was just the beginning. Waldseemuller and Ringman in fact had written the Introduction to Cosmography merely as a companion volume to their magnum opus: a giant and revolutionary new map of the world. It's known today as the Waldseemuller map of 1507. The Waldseemuller map was - and still is - an astonishing sight to behold. Drawn 15 years after Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic, and measuring a remarkable 8ft wide by 4½ft high, it introduced Europeans to a fundamentally new understanding of the make-up of the earth. The map represented a remarkable number of historical firsts. In addition to giving America its name, it was also the first map to portray the New World as a separate continent - even though Columbus, Vespucci, and other early explorers would all insist until their dying day that they had reached the far-eastern limits of Asia. The map was the first to suggest the existence of what explorer Ferdinand Magellan would later call the Pacific Ocean, a mysterious decision, in that Europeans, according to the standard history of New World discovery, aren't supposed to have learned about the Pacific until several years later. World of four parts The map was one of the first documents to reveal the full extent of Africa's coastline, which had only very recently been circumnavigated by the Portuguese. Perhaps most significant, it was also one of the first maps to lay out a vision of the world using a full 360 degrees of longitude. In short, it was the the mother of all modern maps: the first document to depict the world roughly as we know it today. In the years after 1507, copies of the Waldseemuller map began turning up at universities all over central Europe. There, displayed in classrooms and discussed by geographers and travellers alike, its vision of a four-part world insinuated itself into the popular imagination. Waldseemuller himself would later record that 1,000 copies of the map had been printed, a very substantial number for the day. But the rapid pace of geographical discovery meant that copies of the map were soon discarded in favour of newer, more up-to-date pictures of the world, and by 1570 it had all but vanished from memory. When the map maker Abraham Ortelius that year published a comprehensive list of his cartographical predecessors and their maps, he mentioned Waldseemuller but made no reference to the great 1507 map. Last surviving copy Fortunately, one copy did survive. Sometime between 1515 and 1517, the Nuremburg mathematician Johannes Schoner acquired a reprint of the map, bound it into an oversized folio, and made it part of his reference library. In the years immediately afterward, Schoner studied the map carefully, but as the decades wore on, as newer maps became available, and as his own interests shifted from geography to astronomy, he consulted the folio less and less. By the time he died, in 1545, he probably hadn't opened it in years. The last remaining copy of the Waldseemuller map, beautifully preserved in Schoner's folio, had begun a long slumber - and wouldn't be roused again for some 350 years. As is so often the case with historical treasures, the map was rediscovered by accident. In the summer of 1901, while doing research in the library of Wolfegg Castle, in southern Germany, a Jesuit geography teacher named Joseph Fischer stumbled across the Schoner folio and quickly realized what he had found. Within months his discovery was international news. "LONG SOUGHT MAP DISCOVERED," a New York Times headline announced in March of 1902. "EARLIEST KNOWN RECORD OF THE WORD AMERICA FINALLY BROUGHT TO LIGHT." The map remained in the Wolfegg collection for the next hundred years - until 2003, when the US Library of Congress announced, with great fanfare, that it had acquired the map from the castle's owner for the staggering sum of $10m. It was the highest price the library had ever paid for anything in its vast collection. Proudly, in its press release the library referred to the map as America's "birth certificate". Value for money? Was it worth the price? Some observers grumbled that it was not. But now that the map is on public display at the library, scholars and generalists alike have been looking at it with fresh eyes—and what is coming into focus is a document that is far richer, far stranger, and much more historically valuable than had previously been imagined. The map turns out to be an enormously revealing patchwork of several different kinds of maps: the world as depicted by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as diagrammed by Europe's Christian theologians, and as charted by the sailors who plied the waters of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. There's more. The name America, for example, very probably represents not just a tip of the hat to Amerigo Vespucci but also a multilingual pun that can mean both "born new" and "no-place-land" - a playful coinage that seems to have inspired Sir Thomas More to invent his new world across the ocean, one meaning of which was also "no-place": Utopia. The map itself seems also to have made a powerful impression on none other than Nicholas Copernicus, who began his landmark On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by describing America as he saw it depicted on the map, and who then went on to argue that the existence of a fourth part of the world meant that the traditional model not only of the earth but also the cosmos would have to be rethought. For the only surviving copy of the map that not only gave America its name and introduced the New World to Europe but also helped Copernicus rethink the cosmos, $10m seems a very reasonable price to pay.

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Another article at The Boston Globe: A new world The saga of the 16th-century map that gave America its name and paved the way for a modern view of the cosmos By Michael Washburn Globe Correspondent / November 1, 2009

Bank Vault Hides Treasures of a Bankrupt

Updated: 10:52 PM Oct 27, 2009 Ancient Artifacts Found In A Lincoln Bank Lincoln One man, down on his luck, is finally getting a break. The man, who owned an antique and collectibles shop in Lincoln, went bankrupt years ago. He has been struggling financially ever since. But his situation could be looking up, thanks to an unusual find. Posted: 6:55 PM Oct 27, 2009 Reporter: Erika Tallan The Nebraska State Treasurer's office stumbled upon unclaimed property that was turned over to them from a Wells Fargo Bank. According to State Treasurer, Shane Osborn, the property was sitting in a safe deposit box for nearly 7 years. What's unusual, is that the collection consists of ancient artifacts ranging back to 2500 b.c., including an Egyptian Pharaoh mask, Roman and Greek pottery, Phoenician daggers and African spears. Osborn said a research specialist tracked down the owner of all the items. The researcher found the 65-year-old man living in a hotel in Oregon and getting by on food stamps. Turns out, the man owned an antiques and collectibles business in Lincoln but he went bankrupt. When the man became bankrupt, he thought the bank re-possessed his collection. The State Treasurers Office won't release the identity of the man because they are concerned for his welfare as he'll soon be worth more than a $200,000. "That's why we always tell people, keep looking cause this gets turned over to us all the time, not always something this cool, but we get stuff turned over to us all the time," said Shane Osborn, Nebraska State Treasurer. The office is shipping the property to an undisclosed location in Oregon Tuesday.

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Interesting. I wonder if the Trustee in the original bankruptcy read the same article. He or she might want to investigate whether there was some fraud here...

Destruction of Persian Cultural Sites Continues

I believe the Islamic regime in control of Iran at the moment has speeded up their program of destruction of historical Persian sites since the unrest resulting from the rigged Presidential election earlier this year. It is part of the Revolutionary Guard's systemic program of erasing all things pre-Islamic while exerting their control. Here is the latest: From Payvand Iran News 10/28/09 Sassanid site bulldozed in southwestern Iran TEHRAN, Oct. 28 (Mehr News Agency) -- Part of a Sassanid tepe was destroyed last week near Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan. The destruction was carried out by the Mehrab Housing Company for construction of a high-rise apartment complex, Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society (Taryana) announced on Monday. No permission had been granted by the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (KCHTHD) for the housing company at the site, Taryana spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni said. [And yet the work went ahead anyway. Does anyone want to bet if the culprits will be brought to justice? Don't hold your breath!] The mound, which covers an area of 10 hectares, had already been damaged by a road construction project, installation of telecommunication poles, other housing projects and establishment of a bazaar, he added. Last April, KCHTHD's experts visited the tepe to convince Iranian officials to register it on the National Heritage List and to take action for the security of the site. However, so far, no decision has been reached by the KCHTHD for safeguarding the mound. Experts had observed ancient bricks, shards, and pieces of glassware scattered about near the construction projects underway at the site. Some archaeologists who have already visited the mound, believe that beneath the tepe, the ruins of a Sassanid city are buried, Gahestuni said.

Fork: A Symbol of the Goddess

(Photograph: Goddess from Sheikhi Abad mound Iran, 2008 - horns of a red deer with a human face carved into the haft: The first phase of archeological excavations at Sheikhi Abad mound in Iran's Kermanshah Province has yielded the statue of a goddess. The statute, which resembles a figurine previously found in Kermanshah's Sarab-Mort, is believed by experts to be a valuable source of information.) A fork - a "Y" symbol. In symbology, the oldest definition of a fork is two-fold: "two horns," i.e., the horns of a cow, a bull, a deer (or gazelle, etc., like-related animals). In archaic times, many goddesses and gods appeared as horned entities - sometimes with one horn, sometimes with two horns. In later times, spiked crowns were substituted for the symbolic power of a horn or horns. The fork "Y" symbol might also be construed as a long-stemmed glass or goblet - a Grail; and it might also be construed as the classic "delta" area leading to between a woman's legs. The following is from Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, under the entry Fork. She does not agree with my analysis: Fork "Furka" or "fork" described the so-called lost letter of the Greek alphabet, digrmma, a double gamma having the sound of F. Its Sanskrit name was forkwas, linguistic root of the two trees on which dying gods were sacrificed: Norse fyr (fir) and Latin quercus (oak).(1) The Egypotian furka was the Y-shaped cross on which the god Set was crucified. It was also a phallic symbol of the god's sacred marriage.(2) The "thieves' cross" in Christian iconography had the same shape. Such crosses flanking Jesus's cross may have represented sacred marriage. The Y-shaped fork was sometimes regarded as a female genital symbol, in conjunction with the male trident or three-pronged fork.(3) The voodoo savior-god Legbh characteristically used as his crutch a derivative of the sacred furka of Set.(4) Notes: 1. Potter & Sargent, 230. 2. Campbell, M. I., 29. 3. de Lys, 233. 4. Martello, 164.

Hunter Killed by Own Gun

They're saying it's a tragic hunting accident... Squirrel hunter killed by his own shotgun Saturday, October 31, 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette A Greene County man was found dead Wednesday of an apparently accidental shotgun wound while hunting on his property in Whiteley, investigators said. Mark Petrun, 53, had gone hunting for squirrels in the early afternoon Wednesday in the woods on his property on Rocky Ridge Road. When he didn't return to his house by that evening, his family began searching for him, Greene County Deputy Coroner Mary Lewis said. He was found around 9 p.m. about an eighth of a mile into the woods at the bottom of a steep hill. Ms. Lewis said it appears Mr. Petrun was about to take a seat on a log, heavily covered with wet leaves, when he lost his footing. As he fell, the shotgun, with its safety turned off, discharged and the blast struck him in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:15 p.m., Ms. Lewis said.

Games Other Than Chess: A Little News

I found both of these articles of interest. APSU artist releases book of paper chess pieces October 30, 2009 (Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee) “When I was 5 years old, my dad had worked at the New York World’s Fair, and he had gone to the Dutch Pavilion and he bought this kit – make your own medieval village,” Black said. “One night after supper, we cleared the dining room table and cut everything out and glued everything together. It was like magic. I thought, ‘wow, I want to do that.’” Entrepreneurs roll the dice on board game industry Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 by Erin Donaghue Staff Writer Xtreme Takeover - a game that looks like chess and checkers, but isn't

2009 European Women's Team Chess Championship

(Photo from Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog , Russian Women's Chess Team, Gold Medal Winners) Wrap-up. Official website.Women's team medal winners: 1. Russia GOLD (E 7,000) 1. Russia (RUS / RtgAvg:2500 / TB1: 16 / TB2: 26) Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Games Rp 1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 6,0 8,0 2621 2 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536 5,0 8,0 2432 3 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 8,0 9,0 2665 4 IM Romanko Marina 2453 2,0 4,0 2243 5 WFM Gunina Valentina 2437 5,0 7,0 2422 2. Georgia SILVER (E 5,000) 2. Georgia (GEO / RtgAvg:2474 / TB1: 16 / TB2: 24) Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Games Rp 1 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2535 4,0 8,0 2410 2 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 5,5 7,0 2599 3 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451 5,0 7,0 2516 4 IM Khurtsidze Nino 2420 3,0 6,0 2349 5 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438 6,5 8,0 2518 3. Ukraine BRONZE (E 3,000) 3. Ukraine (UKR / RtgAvg:2463 / TB1: 12 / TB2: 20) Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Games Rp 1 GM Lahno Kateryna 2483 5,5 8,0 2593 2 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2457 4,5 8,0 2423 3 IM Ushenina Anna 2474 2,5 6,0 2304 4 IM Gaponenko Inna 2438 4,5 7,0 2428 5 WGM Zdebskaja Natalia 2410 3,0 7,0 2270 Individual medal winners (information from Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog): 1st Board: Gold: Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) (E1,000) Silver: Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) (E700) Bronze: Kateryna Lahno (Ukraine) (E500) 2nd Board: Gold: Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia) (E1,000) Silver: Lilit Mktrchian (Armenia) (E700) Bronze: Sophie Milliet (France) (E500) 3rd Board: Gold: Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia) (E1,000) Silver: Sopiko Khukhashvili (Georgia) (E700) Bronze: Lilit Galojan (Armenia) (E500) 4th Board: Gold: Ekaterini Fakhiridou (Greece) (E1,000) Silver: Joanna Dworakowska (Poland) (E700) Bronze: Olga Vasiliev (Israel) (E500) 5th Board: Gold: Joanna Majdan (Poland) (E1,000) Silver: Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia) (E700) Bronze: Valentina Gunina (Russia) (E500)

2009 European Women's Team Chess Championship

Final Standings! Final Ranking after 9 Rounds Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 1 1 Russia RUS 9 8 0 1 16 26,0 175,0 2 2 Georgia GEO 9 7 2 0 16 24,0 176,5 3 3 Ukraine UKR 9 4 4 1 12 20,0 188,0 4 20 Azerbaijan AZE 9 4 4 1 12 20,0 183,0 (The Presidential Initiative seems to be working!) 5 5 Armenia ARM 9 4 3 2 11 21,0 192,0 6 6 France FRA 9 4 3 2 11 21,0 165,0 7 16 Czech Republic CZE 9 4 3 2 11 19,5 184,5 8 4 Poland POL 9 4 2 3 10 22,5 166,0 9 12 Slovenia SLO 9 4 2 3 10 21,0 154,5 10 10 Hungary HUN 9 4 2 3 10 20,5 166,0 11 13 Romania ROU 9 4 2 3 10 19,0 176,0 12 7 Germany GER 9 4 2 3 10 18,5 177,0 13 17 Israel ISR 9 5 0 4 10 18,0 176,5 14 11 Netherlands NED 9 4 1 4 9 21,0 141,5 15 14 Greece GRE 9 2 5 2 9 19,0 172,0 16 15 Spain ESP 9 3 3 3 9 16,5 174,0 17 22 England ENG 9 3 2 4 8 19,0 131,0 18 19 Italy ITA 9 4 0 5 8 18,5 154,0 19 18 Croatia CRO 9 3 2 4 8 17,0 153,0 20 21 Austria AUT 9 3 2 4 8 16,0 145,0 21 8 Bulgaria BUL 9 4 0 5 8 14,5 174,5 22 23 Montenegro MNE 9 2 3 4 7 16,0 139,5 23 9 Serbia SRB 9 3 1 5 7 15,5 169,0 24 24 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 9 3 0 6 6 14,0 130,5 25 28 Turkey TUR 9 1 3 5 5 11,0 146,0 26 25 Former Yug Rep of Macedonia MKD 9 1 2 6 4 12,0 137,5 27 27 Norway NOR 9 0 4 5 4 12,0 136,5 28 26 Finland FIN 9 0 3 6 3 11,0 152,0 Annotation: Tie Break 1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses) Tie Break 2: points (game-points) Tie Break 3: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variableith parameter) Some interesting statistics from Chess-Results.com: Best players according to points: Final Ranking after 9 Rounds No. Name Rtg Team Pts. Games % Bo. Rp 1 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 8,0 9 88,9 2 2665 2 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438 Georgia 6,5 8 81,3 4 2518 3 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 6,5 9 72,2 2 2564 4 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 6,0 7 85,7 4 2598 5 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 6,0 8 75,0 1 2621 6 IM Muzychuk Anna 2533 Slovenia 6,0 9 66,7 1 2411 7 WFM Milovic Aleksandra 2173 Montenegro 6,0 9 66,7 2 2297 8 Savola Laura 2090 Finland 6,0 9 66,7 2 2284 9 WGM Motoc Alina 2316 Romania 6,0 9 66,7 4 2390 10 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 5,5 7 78,6 1 2599 Best players according to percent: Final Ranking after 9 Rounds No. Name Rtg Team % Games Bo. Pts. Rp 1 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 88,9 9 2 8,0 2665 2 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 85,7 7 4 6,0 2598 3 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438 Georgia 81,3 8 4 6,5 2518 4 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 78,6 7 1 5,5 2599 5 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 75,0 8 1 6,0 2621 6 WIM Fakhiridou Ekaterini 2253 Greece 75,0 6 3 4,5 2400 7 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 72,2 9 2 6,5 2564 8 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2527 Bulgaria 71,4 7 1 5,0 2561 9 IM Milliet Sophie 2407 France 71,4 7 1 5,0 2504 10 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451 Georgia 71,4 7 2 5,0 2516 11 IM Dworakowska Joanna 2345 Poland 71,4 7 3 5,0 2483 12 WIM Vasiliev Olga 2266 Israel 71,4 7 3 5,0 2459 13 WFM Gunina Valentina 2437 Russia 71,4 7 4 5,0 2422 Best Players according to Performance Rating: Final Ranking After 9 Rounds No. Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo. 1 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 2665 8,0 9 88,9 2 2 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 2621 6,0 8 75,0 1 3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 2599 5,5 7 78,6 1 4 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 2598 6,0 7 85,7 4 5 GM Lahno Kateryna 2483 Ukraine 2593 5,5 8 68,8 1 6 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 2564 6,5 9 72,2 2 7 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2527 Bulgaria 2561 5,0 7 71,4 1 8 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2285 Azerbaijan 2519 4,5 8 56,3 1 9 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438 Georgia 2518 6,5 8 81,3 4 10 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2482 Germany 2516 5,5 9 61,1 1 I think it becomes obvious when looking at the overall stats as to why GM Alexandra Kosteniuk took the 2008 Women's World Chess Champion title. She was consistently in the top five in all categories. I was curious about how Narmin Kazimova did overall - she's a young chess femme playing on the Azerbaijani Women's Team, who first caught my eye during the 2008 European Individual Women's Chess Championship. Here are her individual stats: According to Points (out of 137 female players): No. Name Rtg Team Pts. Games % Bo. Rp 78 WIM Kazimova Narmin 2228 Azerbaijan 3,5 8 43,8 1 2357 According to Ratings Performance (out of 137 female players): No. Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo. 43 WIM Kazimova Narmin 2228 Azerbaijan 2357 3,5 8 43,8 1 The problem I have with these stats is that Narmin played on Board 2 for 8 games, and on Board 1 once! Kazimova Narmin WIM 2228 AZE Rp:2357 Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Rp Pts. Res. Bo. 1 42 IM Collas Silvia 2319 FRA 2334 3,5 s 0 2 2 98 IM Bojkovic Natasa 2429 SRB 2234 4,0 s ½ 2 3 125 WGM Vega Gutierrez Sabrina 2357 ESP 2188 2,5 s 1 1 5 48 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 ARM 2564 6,5 w ½ 2 6 45 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 GEO 2599 5,5 w ½ 2 7 131 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536 RUS 2432 5,0 s 0 2 8 35 WGM Botsari Anna-Maria 2286 GRE 2284 4,0 s ½ 2 9 67 WGM Krivec Jana 2329 SLO 2241 4,5 w ½ 2 Well, maybe this all makes sense to some people better versed in all of these stats than I. It just seems strange to me that she played one Game on Board 1 and then is listed as playing on Board 1 for all results???

I Have Found Tatjana Plachkinova!

Hola everyone! Ever since June, 2009, I have been looking for Tatjana, whom I fondly remembered as a young female chessplayer from Bulgaria that I "met" online through IM Ricardo Calvo (rest his soul). While my first independent website called Chessgoddesses.com was online (2001 to sometime in 2004), Tatjana periodically provided me with reports of the tournaments she was playing in and also annotated some of her games. Tatjana, along with Shira Evans reporting states-side, were two chess femmes who made my flegdling site Chessgoddesses.com very popular at the time. It is hard to remember now, because I took Chessgoddessess offline sometime in 2004, and I deleted all of my files related to that website. Really dumb - yes, I know! I deleted the photographs I had, and all of TJ's reports -- I think there were about six or seven, in all. This blogpost started my hunt for Shira Evans and Tatjana Plachkinova. I didn't write about it here, but after I located Shira and re-established contact with her, I continued to hunt for Tatjana Plachinova. The only problem was - I was not spelling her name correctly! DUH! Today, and I don't know why - during my lunch hour I once again hunted for Tatjana Plachinova, and came up with zero on Google. So, this time, I added a "k" to her last name, and - lo and behold - I found her! (Photo: From 2008 European Women's Individual Chess Championship at Plovdid, by Chessbase - TJ is on the left) Birthday 7/12/81, her first name is also sometimes spelled Tatyana and Tatiana. TJ (this is what I called her in my emails) is still playing chess, although sporadically. Now that I am spelling her name correctly, I easily located her FIDE record. She has the WIM title (earned in 2003) and a current FIDE rating of 2148, and is still playing under the Bulgarian flag. TJ's two most recent FIDE rated events: The Campeonato de Catalnya d'Equipos Primera Division G-I between March 1, 2009 and March 29, 2009. I think it must be a league because they played over too long to a period to be a tournament! She finished with 4.0/9. The Hogeschool Zeeland Chess Tournament 2009 (250 players) August 1 - 8, 2009, she finished with 4.5/9. During our last contact, I remembered that TJ was going with GM Artur Kogan, who lived in Spain. I think they got married and have a child - that would account for the drop off in TJ's playing time, as motherhood and marriage is time consuming and becomes the first priority. It is very difficult for female chessplayers who are married and mothers to pursue their chess careers as professionals. Check this out - I found this game TJ played against Magnus Carlsen in 2001 (yes, THE Magnus Carlsen, the kid born in 1990 who looks like he will break the 2800 ELO barrier this year, the same Magnus Carlsen currently under the tutledge of Kasparov). Game Site: Bergen Date: 08/10/2001 Round: 7 Score: 0-1 ECO: D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav defence 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bg4 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. Qb3 a5 9. Ne5 Bh5 10. O-O Qc7 11. e4 O-O 12. Bf4 Qe7 13. Rfe1 Nbd7 14. Re3 Nxe5 15. dxe5 Nd7 16. Rg3 Nc5 17. Qc2 Bg6 18. Qe2 Bxc3 19. bxc3 Bxe4 20. Rd1 Bg6 21. Bg5 Qc7 22. h4 Ne4 23. h5 Nxg3 24. fxg3 Bf5 25. g4 Bc2 26. Qxc2 Qxe5 27. Be7 Rfe8 28. Bd6 Qe3+ 29. Kh2 Rad8 30. Bg3 h6 31. Qb3 Qc5 32. Rf1 Rd7 33. Be2 Red8 34. Bf3 b5 35. Bf2 bxa4 36. Qxa4 Qxc3 37. Qxc6 Qxc6 38. Bxc6 Rd1 39. Kg1 f6 40. Bb5 Kf7 41. Be3 Rxf1+ 42. Kxf1 Rb8 43. Bc6 Rb4 44. Bd2 Rc4 45. Bf3 a4 46. Be2 Rc2 47. Bb4 Rb2 48. Bd6 Rb1+ 49. Kf2 Rb3 0-1 TJ has bragging rights against a player who is probably a future World Chess Champion!

2009 European Women's Team Chess Championship

Rank after Round 8 Rk. SNo Team Team Games + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 1 1 Russia RUS 8 7 0 1 14 23,5 137,0 2 2 Georgia GEO 8 6 2 0 14 21,5 141,0 3 5 Armenia ARM 8 4 3 1 11 19,5 148,0 4 3 Ukraine UKR 8 4 3 1 11 18,0 150,0 5 12 Slovenia SLO 8 4 2 2 10 19,5 123,0 6 20 Azerbaijan AZE 8 3 4 1 10 17,5 148,5 7 16 Czech Republic CZE 8 4 2 2 10 17,5 146,5 8 13 Romania ROU 8 4 2 2 10 17,5 135,0 9 6 France FRA 8 3 3 2 9 18,0 132,5 10 14 Greece GRE 8 2 5 1 9 18,0 131,0

11 15 Spain ESP 8 3 3 2 9 16,0 135,0 12 4 Poland POL 8 3 2 3 8 19,0 135,5 13 10 Hungary HUN 8 3 2 3 8 17,0 135,0 14 19 Italy ITA 8 4 0 4 8 17,0 123,5

15 7 Germany GER 8 3 2 3 8 16,0 140,0 16 17 Israel ISR 8 4 0 4 8 15,0 142,0

17 8 Bulgaria BUL 8 4 0 4 8 14,0 134,5 18 11 Netherlands NED 8 3 1 4 7 17,5 115,0 19 18 Croatia CRO 8 3 1 4 7 15,0 119,5 20 9 Serbia SRB 8 3 1 4 7 14,5 129,0 21 21 Austria AUT 8 3 1 4 7 14,0 111,0 22 22 England ENG 8 2 2 4 6 16,0 109,5 23 23 Montenegro MNE 8 2 2 4 6 14,0 112,5 24 28 Turkey TUR 8 1 3 4 5 10,0 112,5 25 25 Former Yug Rep of Macedonia MKD 8 1 2 5 4 11,0 109,0 26 24 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 8 2 0 6 4 11,0 106,0 27 26 Finland FIN 8 0 3 5 3 10,5 115,0 28 27 Norway NOR 8 0 3 5 3 10,0 107,0 Annotation: Tie Break 1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses) Tie Break 2: points (game-points) Tie Break 3: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variable with parameter)

The final round is today. Here are the match-ups: No. SNo Team Team Pts. MP Res. : Res. MP Pts. Team Team SNo 1 1 RUS Russia 23½ 14 : 11 19½ Armenia ARM 5 2 13 ROU Romania 17½ 10 : 14 21½ Georgia GEO 2 3 16 CZE Czech Republic 17½ 10 : 11 18 Ukraine UKR 3 4 9 SRB Serbia 14½ 7 : 8 15 Israel ISR 17 5 12 SLO Slovenia 19½ 10 : 10 17½ Azerbaijan AZE 20 6 14 GRE Greece 18 9 : 9 18 France FRA 6 7 15 ESP Spain 16 9 : 8 19 Poland POL 4 8 7 GER Germany 16 8 ½ : ½ 8 17 Italy ITA 19 9 8 BUL Bulgaria 14 8 : 8 17 Hungary HUN 10 10 21 AUT Austria 14 7 : 7 15 Croatia CRO 18 11 26 FIN Finland 10½ 3 : 7 17½ Netherlands NED 11 12 22 ENG England 16 6 : 5 10 Turkey TUR 28 13 23 MNE Montenegro 14 6 1 : 1 3 10 Norway NOR 27 14 25 MKD Former Yug Rep of Macedonia 11 4 : 4 11 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 24

Top PR after R8: No. Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo. 1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 2649 5,5 7 78,6 1 2 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 2648 7,0 8 87,5 2 3 GM Lahno Kateryna 2483 Ukraine 2618 5,0 7 71,4 1 4 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 2599 5,5 7 78,6 1 5 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 2598 6,0 7 85,7 4 6 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 2573 6,0 8 75,0 2 7 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2285 Azerbaijan 2570 4,5 7 64,3 1 8 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2527 Bulgaria 2561 5,0 7 71,4 1 9 WGM Galojan Lilit 2326 Armenia 2560 5,5 7 78,6 3 10 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451 Georgia 2546 4,5 6 75,0 2

The Complex Traditions of the Diwali Celebration

Article from The Times of India. Photo from an article in the Daily Mail Online, November 10, 2007, I could not find a photo credit. Caption: Workers could take time off for the Hindu celebration of Diwali - the festival of lights. October 18, 2009 Diwali celebrations: A melange of traditions By Nidhi Singhi LUDHIANA: While Diwali is celebrated all across the country with same enthusiasm and fervour, it holds different meanings for various communities. While Bengali community celebrated it by worshipping Goddess Kali on Diwali night, people belonging to south Indian community marked the day commemorating victory of Lord Krishna over demon Narkasur. Bengalis worship Goddess Lakshmi five days after Dussehra, but on Diwali, they worship goddess Kali. Devotees believe that Kali is the aggressive form or the destructive incarnation of Goddess Durga, but Bengalis celebrated the festival by worshipping goddess Kali, because she destroys the evil and in turn, she promises rejuvenation of life and justice on earth. Among south Indians, it is believed that Diwali celebrations are simply for commemoration of victory of Lord Krishna who killed Narkasur, a powerful king of Assam, who had imprisoned various inhabitants and had been freed by the Lord on this day so Diwali is also known as Naraka Chaturdasi. Some devotees also believe that Narkasur had requested the Lord to fulfil his last wish that he wanted to enjoy the last day of his life in a grand manner and the practice thus continued. Describing celebrations, TK Banerjee, secretary, Bangia Samsad, said it is a tradition in their community to decorate the house with 14 candles a day prior to festival to keep ghosts away from their houses. Since they could not use fried sweets in the worship, they used plain burfi solely prepared by ladies of their homes but one sweet called nadu, served after havana, is liked by all. R Sidhartan, a member of south Indian community, said it is just the traditions that differ but the purpose of festivals is to celebrate it with friends and family members. He said Diwali celebrations include a visit to the temple, gifts of clothes and jewellery, gorging on sweets and receiving blessings of elders.

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I did not know that Hindus believe in ghosts. If there is reincarnation of a decedent's soul, where do the ghosts comes from, or who are the ghosts? At another website discussing the Diwali celebration, the worship of Ganeha in conjunction with the Goddess Lakshmi is mentioned (from Duniyalive.com. Hindus worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi in Diwali, Posted on October 19th, 2009 in Latest India News) : Diwali, Festival of Lights is an auspicious occasion celebrated across India. During Diwali the devotees worship Lord Ganesha beore any other god or goddess. Traditionally on Diwali night, Ganesh shares the altar with Lakshmi. Shree Ganesh is the Lord of Wisdom and the remover of obstacles. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity and also personifies beauty, grace, and charm. In the Hindu pantheon, the two are unrelated, Ganesh being the son of Shiva and Parvati. However, when placed side by side, Lakshmi Ganesh hold out promise of a year of fulfillment, free from wants. During the Ganesh pooja, the idol of goddess Lakshmi is placed on the left and Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed god is kept on the right. Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped for wealth and prosperity, while Ganesh is worshiped first to ensure that any obstacles to obtaining wealth and prosperity are removed. Shri Laxmi-Ganesh Pooja takes place on Diwali by placing their idol on a platform, making various offerings of sandal paste, saffron paste, perfume(itr), haldi, kumkum, abeer, gulal, garland of cotton beads, flowers , especially the marigold flowers and leaves of Bel (wood apple tree). Incense stick and dhoop is lit and offering of sweets, coconut, fruits, and tambul are made. At the end, aarti dedicated to Lord Ganesh is sung by the devotees.

Babylonian Contact with the Hyksos in Egypt

From the Austriantimes.at Austrian archaeologists make Babylonian find in Egypt October 29, 2009 By Lisa Chapman (Photo Credit: (c) Axel Krause) Austrian archaeologists have found a Babylonian seal in Egypt that confirms contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos during the second millennium B.C. Irene Forstner-Müller, the head of the Austrian Archaeological Institute’s (ÖAI) branch office in Cairo, said today (Thurs) the find had occurred at the site of the ancient town of Avaris near what is today the city of Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern Nile delta. The Hyksos conquered Egypt and reigned there from 1640 to 1530 B.C. She said a recently-discovered cuneiform tablet had led archaeologists to suspect there had been contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos. Forstner-Müller added that Manfred Bietak had begun archaeological research on the period of Hyksos dominance at the remains of a Hyksos palace at Avaris in 1966. She said ÖAI would open a museum at the Avaris site that the Egyptian government and sponsors would fund to make the seal and other objects accessible to tourists.

Chess Femme News

Here are some links to recent news stories about female chessplayers and women's chess events from around the internet: Susan Polgar Chess News and Information Blog, October 29, 2009: SPICE and Texas Tech get go-ahead for pilot chess program in selected Texas schools Chessbase, October 24, 2009: Indian chess champ on city streets – She is thirteen, rated 2132, and won the Asian U-14 title in Delhi last month. With her chess career she has made her country proud. But Saranya's childhood is anything but a bed of roses. Her father deserted the family five years ago, and her mother sells small items made of plastic and mud on the pavement of Thiruvottiyur (near Chennai) to eke out a living. Someone must help this girl. October 28, 2009: The USCF website published an article about the final determination of the winners of the 9 Queens "best games" prizes which were set $300, $200 and $100. 9Queens Presents the Best Games at the U.S. Women's By 9Queens Best Game Judges Four judges ranked their favorite five games from the 2009 US Women's Championship in a Best Games Contest sponsored by 9queens, a Tucson-based non-profit that promotes chess to those most in-need of its benefits especially girls and at-risk youth. The prizes were $300 for 1st place, $200 for 2nd and $100 for 3rd. The first place winning game won by a landslide, while the other awards were hotly contested. Winners: #1-: Anna Zatonskih-Alisa Melekhina, Round 6, 14 points ($300) #2-4: Abrahamyan-Krush,1-0, Round 9 ($100) #2-4: Baginskaite-Abrahamyan, 1-0, Round 1 ($100) #2-4: Tatev Abrahamyan vs. Alisa Melekhina (0-1), Round 3 ($100) 9 Queens Blog, October 28, 2009: Here is Jennifer Shahade's post on her thoughts about the best games at the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Kosteniuk Blog, October 28, 2009: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is currently playing first board for the Russian Women's Chess Team at the European Women's Team Chess Championship. She posted her 7th round victory behind the black pieces against Zeinab Mamedjarova (Azerbaijan).

Computer Labs for Kids: Update

Shira Evans has revamped and updated the Computer Labs for Kids (cl4k) website and announced the organization's newest project: the SOS Children's Villages Illinois. She has already mapped out the project and ordered 28 laptop computers! Shira wrote in a news email to her supporters: Our program will be for 28 children between the ages of 5 and 8. We can't show the faces of the children this time (for the children's security), but I will have lots of other fun things I can share. I've already ordered the laptops, and the date is set for Sunday, November 15th! Wish me luck! I'm very excited about this one as it's our biggest yet!!! Not only is Shira busy with her current work assignment in the Windy City as well as putting together the SOS Childrens Villages Illinois project for cl4k, she's been busy playing chess online. She's completed 8 games at Chesspro - won all of them. She's also completed 18 games at Lexulous - won 4, lost 13 and 1 draw. The crowd must be tougher at Lexulous. When I checked in on my game at redhotpawn.com during lunch today, I saw that Shira had challenged me to a new game. I plan on giving her a better fight than I gave to Chessdaddy in the last two games I played with him. Crashed and burned - badly. I am working out the details for getting a new chess coach, by the way. He recommended that I buy and read How to Play Chess Like an Animal. How could I possibly resist? LOL! I'll let you know how it goes. We are going to play a game so he can check out my relative skill level (I use relative and skill quite liberally in regard to my chess-playing abilities). He says he will make chess fun for me again. Hmmmm... As it is, at the moment, I spent almost half my lunch hour starting at my game with an unknown player trying to decide what move to make, dithering back and forth, attempting to analyze what would happen if I make this move versus that move versus that move, and for the life of me it's driving me nuts! My natural instinct is to go for the jugular in this game and commence a bloodbath, and may the best pawn be standing at the end (probably my opponent's). But then I say to myself, "Self, that's probably what he (or she) wants you to do. That's exactly why he (or she) put that damn pawn there on c3. He (or she) is just trying to psych you out." He (or she) doesn't have to try to psych me out; I'm doing a pretty darn good job all by myself :)

2009 European Women's Team Chess Championship

Rank after Round 7: 1 1 　RUS 12 2 2 　GEO 12 3 5 　ARM 10 4 16 CZE 10 5 3 UKR 10 6 20 　AZE 9 7 12 　SLO 8 8 6 　FRA 8 9 14 GRE 8 10 13 ROU 8 11 15　ESP 8 12 17 ISR 8 13 8 BUL 8 14 4 POL 7 15 11　NED 7 16 10 HUN 7 17 7 　GER 7 18 19 　ITA 6 19 18 　CRO 6 20 23 　MNE 6 21 9 　SRB 5 22 21 　AUT 5 23 22 　ENG 4 24 25 　MKD 4 25 24 　BIH 4 26 28 　TUR 4 27 27 NOR 3 28 26 　FIN 2 Top PR after R7: No. Name Rtg Team Rp Pts. Games % Bo. 1 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 2686 5,5 6 91,7 4 2 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2285 Azerbaijan 2659 4,5 6 75,0 1 3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 2647 5,0 6 83,3 1 4 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 2625 6,0 7 85,7 2 5 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 2616 4,5 6 75,0 1 6 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 2599 5,5 7 78,6 2 7 GM Lahno Kateryna 2483 Ukraine 2581 4,0 6 66,7 1 8 IM Gaponenko Inna 2438 Ukraine 2577 4,0 5 80,0 3 9 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2527 Bulgaria 2574 4,5 6 75,0 1 10 IM Jackova Jana 2393 Czech Republic 2572 4,0 6 66,7 1

Knights (and Knightesses) of Mill Valley Chess Team

Hola! One last post for tonight. Earlier this month when I was looking for information on the Badger Open held in early October, I came across a blog devoted to the Knights of Mill Valley Chess Team, Mill Valley Elementary School, Muskego, Wisconsin, which is located just a wee bit to the southwest of my own hometown. There are 30-some kids on the team, 12 of whom are girls. That's pretty darn good percentage wise. Way to go Knights of Mill Valley! I will root for all of the chess femmes in their upcoming lessons and future tournaments! Surprised this evening by an email from chess coach/chess teacher Mark Seghers of the Knights of Mill Valley with a couple of photos of the team, one of some of the ladies. Without further ado, presented here with Mr. Seghers' comments. First Photo: Mr. Seghers wrote: "We meet on the stage, there is no other place for us! Works out pretty good." I don't know - it looks pretty crowded to me on that stage, but the players look intent! No chairs for the kids. On the other hand, the tables are almost as tall as some of the players, so it is probably easier to stand and play than to sit and try to play in a chair that would be too low to the board! Second photo: Some of the young ladies of the Knights (actually, they are Knightesses) of the Mill Valley Chess Team. They are all Gorgeous! YOU GO GIRLS! Perhaps we have a future #1 in the world in this picture. Thanks for the photos, Mr. Seghers. I will be following along on the blog for future news and please feel free to send me more photos of the chess femmes in action!

Interesting Carved Stones Found Near Church Ruins

Oh no - at the very end of this article, they mention an old legend about buried treasure. Now that this tombstone(?) or sarcophogus(?) cover has been found, you know what's bound to happen - hordes of treasure hunters will descend upon this site, and they're probably not going to be signing up and staying at the local inn and shopping in the local village shops! From the News.scotsman.com Mystery stone found near church linked to Knights Templar Published Date: 27 October 2009 By CLAIRE SMITH A MYSTERIOUS carved stone has been uncovered alongside a 12th-century church associated with the Knights Templar. The stone has been dated to the 12th century. Pictures: Kate Chandler What appears to be the carved top of a sarcophagus was unearthed when builders were excavating and reinforcing a wall alongside the old ruined church in Temple, Midlothian. But the inscriptions, which include symbols similar to those found in Viking monuments, in medieval graves and in West Highland Celtic carvings, have baffled archaeologists. Crispin Phillips, who is renovating a house alongside The Old Parish Church, said: "I was on a mission to repair the wall – which was falling into the graveyard. We got near the bottom of the foundations and found something buried there. "We found one stone carved with a cross and then another with these carvings on it." He added: "We spent about half an hour in philosophical discussions about what we should do about it. I felt we should do something, rather than just bury it again." Mr Phillips contacted Historic Scotland and East Lothian Council, whose archaeologists cover Midlothian. He said the stone had been photographed and recorded but he was still unclear whether further investigations would be carried out. "One of the archaeologists who came out told us it was probably from the early 12th century," he added. "But really I'm still in limbo about what to do about it." Historian and author John Ritchie said the stone raised many questions. "It is a crude carving, quite primitive, but I have never seen anything like it in my life," he said. "It has a whole series of symbols on it and the symbols are very interesting." The symbols at the bottom look like Viking sun compasses, while the dials at the top look a little bit like a Celtic cross but with notches carved on them. Expert David Connolly, of Connolly Heritage Consultancy, said he believed the stone was from the 13th or 14th century. "It is a significant site because it was the Templar Preceptory for Scotland," he said. "I think from the condition, it may once have been set inside the church – which was once much bigger," he added. "He could be a Templar, he could be a Hospitaller, he could just be a knight who wanted to be buried there – but the heraldry is like nothing anyone has seen before." He added that he hoped further study of the stone was possible in the future. Mr Phillips said he planned to complete the rebuilding of the 17th-century graveyard wall and would build an arch into it so the half-buried carvings could still be seen by interested scholars. However historian and author Michael Turnbull said he doubted the find was significant: "There were certainly Templars there but this might be a fake." Village legend tells of long-lost buried treasure THE village of Temple in Midlothian takes its name from the Knights Templar, who once had their Scottish Preceptory – their headquarters – there. The ruined chapel, which nestles in the valley at the foot of the village, is all that remains of what was once an abbey founded by the Templars on lands gifted by David I of Scotland in 1127. Founded during the Crusades, the Templars was a religious order of knights whose mission was to protect Christians in the Holy Land.Some say they invented international banking, with a system of credit letters used to pass funds to people fighting in the Crusades. The Templars certainly grew rich and powerful. According to some accounts they were the holders of treasures from Jerusalem. But the organisation came under suspicion from the royalty of Europe and the Catholic Church. Templars were hunted down and burned at the stake. Legend has it some of those fleeing persecution hid in this Midlothian village – bringing their treasure with them. According to local legend some of this treasure still lies buried in Temple: "Twixt the oak and the elm tree/You will find buried the millions free."

Donegal Shrine Virgin 'Comes to Life'

A Virgin Mary apparition site - and some very interesting happenings earlier this month. From The Belfast Telegraph Donegal grotto statue 'took on human form' Friday, 2 October 2009 Visitors to a remote grotto have claimed a statue wept and crosses appeared and disappeared in the night sky this week. A group of 14 people, who had gathered at the statue of the Virgin Mary, in a rocky outcrop near the town of Dungloe, Co Donegal, on Tuesday night, were transfixed as they watched the phenomenon, which they said lasted almost an hour. "It was a crazy evening. It was absolutely amazing. I am still on an emotional high. All but one person seemed to see the same thing," recalled James Boyle, from Ardara, who was at the site with his wife Margaret and children, Martin (10) and Mary (11). The Kerrytown shrine is visited by thousands of pilgrims annually, after first becoming the subject of a religious apparition 70 years ago. James explained how the group had been drawn there last Tuesday night because of a claim by Ballyfermot-based faith healer Joe Coleman that the Virgin Mary had told him in a channelled message that she would appear at the shrine on September 29 at 8pm. "We went into the shelter facing the rock and at a few minutes to eight someone suggested we should start the rosary. We had no sooner started than someone shouted 'look up'. "To the left of the cross, another cross appeared in the sky and as soon as it disappeared, another one appeared. It lasted about 10 minutes," he explained. Then people began noticing that the white statue with its red heart had begun changing colour and form. "She appeared to have a human face and her head turned and she looked at people. She looked down at the children who were at the front," he said. One woman explained how the statue began crying and she went up to dry the tears. "The tears were running down from her eyes," she told Highland Radio. Speaking to the Irish Independent from his Dublin home, Mr Coleman said that the Virgin Mary, who has been appearing to him for many years, had communicated to him that she would make herself known at Kerrytown on September 29. He had passed on the details of that message to a small group of people who attended a healing service organised by him in Dungloe last June. He added that a lot of priests in Co Donegal did not believe he was doing his healing work for the love of God. Dungloe parish priest, Father Seamus Meehan, said last night that there had been talk about the Kerrytown grotto for years. "But I would be kind of sceptical about it myself," he added.